30 June 2013

Let's Do This: Brioche and Challah Bread Pudding

Long-time readers know that I like to make (and eat) desserts. I indulge this hobby by taking the occasional baking class down at the local fancy baking place. Super fun. So far I've taken Basic Breads, Biscuits and Scones, and most recently, How to Make Challah and Brioche and Related Breads and Rolls that are Made from Challah and Brioche Doughs.*

I tried to take a Chocolate Breads class for the past three months but it's only offered once a month and no one enrolled besides me. At any point. In three months. Apparently I'm the only person in the greater Newport Beach area that likes to do cool shit. Since Chocolate Breads probably won't happen until I get enough people to sign up (which I'm working on) I opted to take what I could get.

How can I make this more fattening?

The class was awesome. Great instructor, learned a ton, made a big pile of enormous breadstuffs. Like, a big pile: kaiser rolls, challah, brioche cinnamon roll, brioche bun thing, and a
take-home bundle of challah dough which I threw away because ugh, so
much bread. Fresh made from scratch means that it starts to go stale right away. Great for eating, not so great for storing.

Fortunately, stale bread is a key ingredient in one of my all-time favorite desserts: bread pudding. I love ice cream, custards (e.g. pies), puddings of all types, egg nog, french toast (bread pudding for breakfast!), arroz con leche (a particular favorite), chocolate milk, whatever you can put milk, sugar and eggs in and serve hot, cold, or room temperature: I'll eat it. And probably quite a lot of it, if we're being honest. So, big pile of rapidly-becoming-stale ultra premium handmade breads/rolls and a few free minutes the afternoon - what to do?

Holy shit let's get this party started! First things first, always put on some pumping jams to keep you company while you're cooking. Turn that shit up and get ready to get down. Then assemble your ingredients.

I Could Eat This With A Spoon; Instead I Used My Hands

The fun thing about bread pudding is that you just mix up your ratio of milk/cream and eggs with your other stuff and put it all in a bowl. It's super easy. I opted to add golden raisins and some chocolate chips to mine. I felt like they balanced out the egg, milk and cream quite nicely. Mix all that up with bread that already has so much butter in it that if you ever made it you would never, ever eat it ever again and leave it sit for a few hours. Then you slop it into a casserole pan and put it in the oven for a good long while.

Bake it up for a really long time and eventually you get this:

Sent this photo to my Mom and she said, "Don't make yourself sick."

Et voila! That's a big tub of delicious right there.

As per usual with these things I'll package it up and give most of it away tomorrow. I can't have it in the house. There's no one around to restart my heart when my aorta clogs. It's not shippable or I would be boxing it up for y'all tonight.

Now if you'll excuse me I have to go make myself sick eat some dessert.